It’s been nearly 2 years since it was first reported that Apple had supposedly started factoring app ratings into the App Store’s search algorithm. Fiksu analysed the chart position of 200 top apps, segmenting them into groups based on their average app rating, and then compared their chart rank data over a period of 6 weeks. The results of their analysis can be seen below:

Off the back of this research most developers now accept that their app rating has an effect on their App Store search ranking, and this has led to even more attention being put on ensuring ratings received are as high as possible.

Ensuring your app receives positive ratings and reviews requires a good understanding of customer expectations. In this blog post, I am going to look at what users currently expect from mobile applications, and how 2 developers have attracted negative feedback from users in their bid to monetise their products.

User Expectations

Freemium apps dominate the app store charts. At the time of writing (July 2015), there are just 2 paid apps in the top 100 grossing chart on the US App Store, and on Google Play, it has been reported that 98% of revenue is generated by freemium products.

“There are just 2 paid apps in the top 100 grossing chart on the US App Store” (Tweet this)

There is no doubt that the freemium model has been profitable for a number of developers, particularly the larger games publishers that can afford to invest millions in creating the optimal monetisation strategy. However, the sheer popularity of free to play games has led to users expecting high quality content for free.

Monument Valley, arguably one of the most beautiful mobile games ever built, caused outrage in November 2014 by asking users to pay for their expansion pack. The app is currently available to download for £2.99, and users are then asked to pay £1.49. This is the response from users:

ustwo, the developer behind Monument Valley, has to be given credit for being brave enough to invest huge amounts of time into building a high quality game in which they expect users to pay for the updates. If you look at other console platforms this pricing model exists, and it works. This is how ustwo responded to the criticism from customers:

Dealing With Negative Feedback

ustwo aren’t the only developer to come under fire from users for their pricing strategy. Many indie developers have also had their fair share of user complaints about price increases or monetisation strategies.

Receiving any form of negative feedback from a user is always disheartening. However, how you handle this feedback is important. Whilst it is very tempting to shoot over to Twitter and complain, unless you are a well known/respected developer such as ustwo, this rarely ends well.

On Amazon and Google Play developers are given a voice and are able to reply to reviews on their application. Below is a great example of how to respond to negative feedback. The developer involved is Per Haglund, a children’s games publisher based in Sweden…

On iOS, you are not able to reply to reviews in this way, meaning developers have to resort to social media in order to interact with consumers.

If you are struggling to manage your user feedback, then you may want to consider using a third party plugin in order to help improve customer reviews. Services such as Helpshift and Apptentive are good options for this.

Developers Need To Make A Living

The big problem here is that users expect applications to provide hours of fun at a very low (or no) cost, whilst indie developers deserve to make a living from the software they build. Yes, the vast majority of developers create applications as a passion, but there are also bills to pay and families to feed.

It would be wrong to assume that consumers have a full understanding of the effort and planning that goes into producing a mobile application, and this lack of understanding is why many users are so quick to complain when prices are a little higher than they expected.

Summary

It’s not easy to make enough money to cover your costs whilst also giving users a sense of value for money. Consumers can be easily aggravated when being asked to pay for even the highest quality game updates, such as the expansion pack in Monument Valley, that it leaves many indie developers questioning how they can monetise their user base.

With user reviews now widely reported to be having an effect on app ranking on iOS, avoiding negative feedback is of a higher priority than ever. For this reason, if you’re going to opt for a paid or paid with in app purchase price model, then you have to make sure that your app really is providing value to your users, or you will soon attract negative reviews.

Remember users now either expect an app to be extremely high quality if paid, or expect to gain a lot of value from a free app prior to having to upgrade.

This article was originally published on the on the Tapdaq blog, and can be read here.

About the Author

Dom Bracher is co-founder and CMO at Tapdaq, a cross promotion tool for mobile app developers. Dom often writes about app marketing trends, user acquisition and mobile strategy on the Tapdaq blog.